The 7 human rights issues that will shape the next generation

Nothing about the future is ever entirely certain. In a time of growing anxiety, shifting international power balances and technological change, the inherent uncertainty of what comes next can be more overwhelming than usual — especially for the historically disenfranchised people most at risk of being pushed further to the margins in a changing global landscape.

But the clash of worldwide social justice movements and the backlash against them also presents an enormous opportunity for progress on some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time. In the United States and around the world, battling myriad forms of bigotry — racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia and religious intolerance — go hand in hand with securing access to healthcare, safe housing, bodily autonomy, privacy and other basic civil rights.

This battle will continue for the next generation — and these are the issues that will define their lives and livelihoods for years to come.

Refugee crises in Syria and other parts of the Middle East have displaced millions of people from their homes and exacerbated xenophobic violence across Europe.Source: Hadi Mizban/AP

1. Refugee crises

Throughout the 2016 election, the debate over whether or not the U.S. should welcome refugees displaced by the civil war in Syria fueled everything from hateful comments, comparisons to the Holocaust to pleas for compassion. Among other atrocities, the use of chemical weapons against civilians has led to mass migration out of the war-torn country, but the Syrian refugee crisis is one of many.

3. Violence against women

Arguments for respecting all human beings' dignity aside, there's a strong case to be made against global sexism: It's really friggin' expensive. Economists estimate patriarchal gender norms that keep women dependent, subjugated and without earning power or education keep GDPs from going up, while gender-based violence can make a country's GDP worse. Higher rates of violence against women also have also been correlated with higher rates of poverty and poorer public health outcomes. There's a reason Hillary Clinton gets quoted on the issue so often: women's rights are human rights — and until they're secured, they'll be a human rights issue.

Flint is one of many places where people lack access to clean water. Public officials' utter inattentiveness to low-income communities has left towns like St. Joseph, Louisiana, without potable water for over a decade. Across the globe, an estimated 663 million people — roughly 1 in 10 — don't have access to clean water.

Natural disasters, including horrific flooding and extreme heat, are estimated to cause a total of 250,000 additional deaths annually. Climate change also has an indirect impact on the economy, and is expected to cost at least $2 billion by 2030. Morbid as it might be, failing to solve this crisis could be the solution to all the others.